Snow fence



June 9 1925' 1,541,241 H. M- BAXTER sNow FENCE Filed July l, 1924 vf'pf?r Patented .lune 9, 1925.

UNTED STATES HECTOR 1u. BAXTER, or BATTLE CREEK, Iowa.

snow FENCE.

Application 'filed July 1,

T0 all whom t may concer/nf Beit known that l, HECTOR M. BAXTER,alcitizen of the United States, and a resident of Battle Creek, in thecounty of Ida and State of owa, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Snow Fences, of which the following is a specification.

An object of my invention is to provide a fence construction to be usedat the side of a highway for preventing snow drifting onto the road.

A further object is to provide sucha fence which is of the cheapest andsimplest possible construction, and yet is durable and, when properlypositioned, will stop the course of snow carried west wind, and cause itto drift on the windward side of the fence.

A still further object is to provide a fence which will not kpresentsuch resistence to the wind as would be offered by a solid fence, butwill allow air currents to pass through, while stopping the drifting ofsnow.

l/Vitlr these and other objects-in' View', my invention consist in theconstruction, .arrangement and combination of the var ious parts of mydevice, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinaftermore fully set forth, pointed out in my claims, and illustrated in theaccompany- -ing drawings, in which: g

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a port1on of a road, with my improvedfencing installed on one side thereof.

Fig. 2 is sectional view `through a portion of the fence,diagrammatically illus- 'ti-ating the effect upon snow laden aircurrents, of the fence.

Since paved highways have become liumerous and much used in interstatetravel,

the necessity of keeping them free of drifted snow in the winter timehas presented itself.V Especially in the prairie sections of the countrydoes this problem become serious, since there the snow is carried formany miles along the surface of the ground, by the wind, and isdeposited in every depression and hollow, in drifts. The crdinaryhighway is flanked at many points by embankments where cuts have beenmade, and the snow often deposits to great depths in these cuts.

rlhe problem has been approached by the providing of solid fences alongthe windward side of the road, but there are certain by the usual north1924. Serial No. 723,462.

objections to such device which my invention is designed to eliminate.

yThe solid fence stops the current of air almost entirely, and the windis thereby de dected upwardly over the fence. A certain amount of thesnow will be caught in the dead air poclred formed on the Windward sideof such a fence, but much of it will be carried on over the fence by thewind and deposited in the road.v

it willV be understood that the greater uantity of the drifting snow iscarried at level only a few inches from the ground.

My invent-ion contemplates `the interposing of a permeable element inthe path of the wind, which will allow the air currents to pass throughitself to such an extent that the air currents will not be deiiectedupwardly, andvwill'at the same time check the drifting snow carriedclose to the ground, and cause it to be heaped upon the windward side ofthe fence.

ln the drawings, I have used the reference character, 10, to indicatethe bed of a road.`

My fencing is formed of slats, 11, connected by wires or other means,`12. The

fencingk may be 'installed by nailingl toA posts, 13. i

Each slat has the side faces, 14, and the inclined faces, 15. The faces,15, are disposed at angles of approximately 45 to the sides, 11i. Thespaces between the slats are such that the fence, when viewed from anangle perpendicular to the faces, 15, presents an unbroken appearance.

The utility of my device relies on the fact that 95% of the snowstormsare carried by a northwest wind. In installing the device,

the slats are positioned so vthat the inclined faces are perpendicularto this northwest direction.

As the air currents, travelling as indicated by the arrows, 16, strikethe inclined faces, they are deflected, as at 17, and a portion thereofwill create a current of air parallel to the front and rear faces of theslats, as indicated by the arrows, 18. rlhe large portion of the aircurrents will continue on in the direction of the arrows, 19.

Thel rapid movement of the air past the windward acute corner of eachslat (indicated on the drawings at 20), will tend to create a partialvacuum adjacent the inclined face adjoining that corner, and, aided bythe transverse current at 18, a portion of the air will be defiectedback between the lil() slats as at 21, producing a whirling motion ofthe air between the slats which opposes the movement of the snow flakesthrough the fence and causes them to be deposited substantially asindicated to pile up against the Windward inclined face of the nextadjacent slat.

It will be understood that a portionof the snow flakes will be deflectedand carried on through the fence, but that the mass and inlexibility ofthe snow particles will cause most of them to be deposited against theWindward inclined faces of the slats.

The effectiveness of the device is aided by the fact that snow particleswill ordinarily adhere to a surface against which they impact withsufficient force. rThis may be attributed to the heat, caused by theimpact, momentarily melting the surface of the snow Halie sufficientlyto cause it to instantly freeze when the force of the impact isexpended.

I have tested out a section of fencing constructed according to myinvention, and have found'that it is effective in every case, where thewind is substantially from the northwest, in stoppingv the driftingsnow.

It will be remembered that the massl of the drifting snow is carriedvery near the ground and that it is sufficiently dense to be readilytrapped by the counter currents set up between the slats. The volume ofthe air current passes through the slats above the point where the snowis being trapped, and as the level of the snow increases the aircurrents will be correspond? ingly shifted upwardly.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of theparts of my invention without departing from the real spirit and purposeof my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claims, anymodified forms of structure r use of mechanical equivalents which may bereasonably included within their scope.

I claim as my invention:

l. In a snow retaining fence, a series of spaced upright slats, eachslat being substantially parallelogram-shaped in cross section, thelateral faces of the slats being inclined relative to the front and rearfaces, the slats being so spaced that a plane passing through an acutecorner of one slat perpendicular to the lateral faces of the slat willintersect the adjacent acute corner of an adjacent slat.

2e In a snow retaining fence, a series of spaced upright slats,substantially parallelogram-shaped in cross section, the late-ral facesof the slats being inclined at a substantial angle to the plane of thefence whenV disposed in erected position, and t-he slats being spaced adistance approximately equal to the width of a face of a slat.

3. In a snow retaining fence, a series of spaced upright slats, thelateral faces of the slats being inclined relative to the front and rearfaces and being substantially parallel to each other.

Signed at Battle Creek, in the countv of Ida and State of Iowa, June,1924.

HECTOR M= BAXTER.

this 24th day of

